On the writing front #
Combining the useful with the pleasant—or revenues with passion—has always been part of my struggle to find meaning in how I make a living, and writing is no exception. The genre and themes of my current novels, and the kind of stories I generally enjoy writing, allow me to convey certain messages and spark reflections. But selling my stories doesn’t constitute a concrete action that contributes to solving the issues I care about.
My novella, Le Don de l’Hiver, is my first work deeply rooted in the ecological crisis: it’s a magical response in which I’ve included real technological ideas I’ve come across through various readings. I believe my main universe, L’Académie des Renards, has enough potential to continue this exploration, but my next stories are far from finished.
In the meantime, for the Printemps des Viennes event on June 7th in Saint-André-les-Vergers, I’ll be offering small potted plants decorated with one of my personal illustrations as goodies.
On the web front #
My series of two blog posts on WarpDrive was published yesterday on Mainmatter’s website. WarpDrive was formerly known as EmberData. It’s historically the data management library for the frontend framework EmberJS. It’s a very robust solution for communicating with backend APIs and enables the development of ambitious applications. In fact, I’ve heard of at least one company that chose the Ember framework specifically to benefit from EmberData’s features.
WarpDrive is an evolution of EmberData designed to be framework-agnostic. Eventually, you’ll be able to use it whether your choice is Svelte, React, or something else.
My article 1 - Migrating to WarpDrive, what does that mean? and 2 - Using WarpDrive in Super Rentals Tutorial are primarily aimed at Ember developers who want to better understand how to keep their applications up to date by migrating to WarpDrive’s features.
In the garden #
This week, I transplanted some bean, cherry tomato, and red-stemmed chard plants directly into the ground. Other lettuces and Indian pinks are still growing a bit more under my mini greenhouse before joining them. I also tried sowing a row of pink radishes, though I’ve always struggled with this vegetable. On the seedling front, nigella, hollyhocks, and the next batch of lettuces are starting to sprout.
I’m also tackling a gentle cleanup of certain garden areas to blend aesthetics with biodiversity preservation. The stone planter left by the previous owners, for example, is now covered in ivy. I’ve placed another large terracotta pot on top of it, containing a trio of santolina, lemon sedum, and yarrow, which the ivy should eventually decorate as well.
On the culture front #
I’ve watched the first two seasons of Frieren. Its main theme revolves around time and mortality, given the protagonist’s lifespan. Though categorized as shōnen, it’s more of a cozy series with well-written characters. I highly recommend it and can’t wait for the next season.
For what it’s worth #
Avoid tearing an intercostal muscle during your weekly workout. It hurts. And it makes sleeping a bit complicated.